Shelby F. Winslow
Overview At a time when great men where making history, Shelby Franics Winslow was there to be its witness, and its scribe. A humble academic, the subtle, yet vital contributions of this man played a vital role in the course of history. Although Winslow considered himself first and foremost a historian, he also sojourned as an ONI adviser, a diplomat, and a soldier, playing a pivotal role in Humanity's victory over the Covenant, and the healing of the Galaxy's wounds from the scars the long years of battle had wrought. Early Life Winslow was born in 2472 in Williamsburg, Virginia. From a very early age, he showed an interest in reading, a pursuit that was further kindled after his family moved nearer Washington D.C. and the young Winslow began to make frequent sojourns to the Library of Congress. He began to cultivate a strong interest in the past, reading historians from Plutarch to Stephen Ambrose, compiling a wealth of knowledge on the history of an assortment of diverse governments, societies, and armies. Winslow graduated with high honors from his high school and enrolled in the University of Virginia, graduating ten years later with a Doctorate in History, and a solid reputation among professors and classmates as a strong thinker and an accomplished researcher. Academia With no initial job openings in academia Winslow was preparing begin a writing career in order to support himself, but a phone call from a former professor dispelled these plans. Winslow soon found himself lecturing occasionally at local colleges and universities, and soon he was an associate professor at his alma mater. Winslow soon proved to be a talented teacher, yet his writing was largely unnoticed, simply a name among the thousands of unknown academics across the globe. He proved a moderate success in the classroom, disliked by some students for his high expectations, and loved by others for his passion and energy in the classroom. Although living on a modest salary, Winslow always found time to acquire new volumes to pack the shelves of his vast personal library. On quiet evenings, it became his habit to retire to his library, where Winslow would retire to the company of the great minds of ages past. And so the story of Winslow's rise began even as the decades passed. Pioneer A research trip for a book on the development of the Shaw-Fujikawa Drive Winslow was writing brought Winslow into contact with Admiral Gerard Vane, an influential figure in the UNSC for his role in the harnessing of Slipspace and as the discoverer of numerous planets later colonized. The recent development of the Mark 5 Shaw-Fujikawa Drive had further increased Humanity's capabilities as explorers, allowing them to make faster, longer, more accurate Slipspace jumps. The potential for this technology was not lost on Admiral Vane, who began agitating for the UNSC to send ships equipped with this drive to explore and colonize the dozens of new planets astronomers had discovered during the last decade. But there was a more sinister reason for this project. The emergence of the Covenant and the loss of UNSC outer colonies to the ravages of these xenocidal aliens had made the search for new worlds necessary. For if Earth fell Humanity could not hope to survive, unless a few remote colonies remained to carry on the Human cause. And so began Project New Frontier. Project New Frontier Impressed by Winslow's quiet competence, and driven the age-old ambition of men to have their accomplishments recorded favorably, Vane recruited the professor for Project New Frontier to act as an adviser and a chronicler. Winslow accepted Vane's invitation and requested, and was granted a sabbatical from his university. The Mark 5 Drive-equipped colony ship UNSC Navigator set out for a far-off planet UNSC astronomers had dubbed Silus 11B12. Thanks to the new Shaw-Fujikawa Drive, some luck, and a mysterious collision with a Slipspace abnormality (later determined to have been the wake of a Covenant ship), the Navigator reached her target, a planet which proved to be reasonably rich in mineral resources, and although hot and barren, a small group of colonists disembarked and erected a small mining colony. Over the course of the next several years, the Navigator continued to blaze a trail through the outer fringes of unexplored space, planting 7 more colonies, among them the lush ocean world of Reef. The years spent in space proved to be a valuable boon to Winslow. His account of the voyage, New Frontiersmen topped three major bestseller lists, its mixture of journalism, travelouge, and historical account giving it appeal among a broad range of readers. But Winslow's participation on the mission also gained him attention from another sector: the shadowy Office of Naval Intelligence. Naval Intelligence The participation of Winslow in Project: New Frontier and the ensuing success of his work, attracted the attention of the Office of Naval Intelligence. Admiral Vane's report to the UNSC on Winslow's performance during the mission was highly favorable, and Winslow's book on the mission served to further bolster an academic resume already strengthened by his new-found experience in the remote and largely unexplored space beyond the Outer Colonies, experience which would be vital in tracking down and engaging the remote hideouts of rebel groups. But beyond their consideration for his intellectual qualifications, ONI had a familial reason for recruiting Winslow. Unbeknownst to Winslow himself, Winslow's father had been in the employ of ONI, having acted as an intelligence advisor to the UN's Department of Space Affairs, a role largely brought about by the ONI philosophy that a civilian operative would appear more disarming to a civilian organization such as the UN, allowing the operative access to information which would not be divulged to an openly military officer. And so ONI recruited Winslow, as an advisor and analyst on the rebel groups in the Outer Colonies. Thwarting the Rebellion Now privy to a volume of classified information, Winslow was given the task of investigating, and preempting rebel actions among the Colonial Fringe. Winslow began to notice an increase in reports of malfunction or damage on the basic utilities and resources of a host of UNSC Outer Colony worlds. Hydroelectric dams developed minor cracks and had to be shut down for repair. Space and airports had to be shut down due to severe rain, unauthorized artificial cloud seeding was suspected. Subway tunnels flooded, one complex of government buildings on an Arctic world lost its heating and had to be shut down. Most analysts did not bother to even sift through this mound of data, and those simply ignored them as complaining from bored colonial bureaucrats craving attention from the UNSC. But Winslow saw something more, these incidents were part of a bigger picture, yet precisely what this picture was eluded Winslow. Then the words of W.B. Mitchell, a long-dead 21st century historian, came to mind; "in the times where the present offers no answer, look to the past." And so Winslow slipped from his cubicle and mounted his bicycle for the long ride to his home of the banks of the Potomac; if the answer lay in the past, the answer would be in Winslow's library. Mounting the stairs of his five thousand volume personal library, Winslow surveyed the long rows of well-loved tomes, row upon row, page upon page, of some of the greatest books ever written in the history of mankind. Authors like Stephen Ambrose rubbed shoulders with Plutarch and Josephus, the worn covers of their work a testament to the timelessness of words. Selecting a thick volume with a long finger Winslow dug in. Three day later, a stack of discarded works littered the floor around Winslow's feet, ONI was having a fit; the agents they had dispatched in search of Winslow had found in house deserted, having missed his secluded library, and they were preparing to drag the Potomac for his body. However Winslow was oblivious to these developments, scribbling in the final page of a notebook covered in sketches, notes, page numbers, and musings. His notes complete, Winslow plucked a few books from the heap on the floor, tucked them under his arm, and pedaled back to ONI Headquarters. The moment Winslow strode through the sliding doors of the building he was tackled by several security guards and hauled to the Director's office. Initially furious at Winslow's "desertion" the man quickly quieted down, his anger replaced by confusion as Winslow began to spout an incoherent slew of names, dates, places, battles, organizations, and book titles. Once the Director was able to slow the excited Winslow down, he soon grasped the magnitude of the message Winslow was trying to convey. The events Winslow had noticed in the colonies, perfectly matched the precedent set by rebel groups like the ELA (Earth Liberation Army) or Al Qaeda. Both had focused their attention on vital elements of the economic and governmental structure of their targets. Al Qaeda had temporarily destroyed the US economy in 2001, as had the ELA, after both launched attacks on vital infastructural elements. Winslow was arguing that the same thing was happening in the Outer Colonies, but whoever was responsible for these incidents was doing it quietly, hoping to weaken the Colonies until they became easy prey for...what? Winslow had no idea what the perpetrators were going to do once they had hamstrung the Colonies. Would they openly attack? Would they simply let the Colonies atrophy? Or would they try something bigger? Would they launch an attack so devastating it would effectively hand them the Outer Colonies before the UNSC could lift a finger? Intrigued and frightened by Winslow's theory, the Director quickly contacted the ONI operatives in the Outer Colonies to watch closely for subtle actions of sabotage. For months nothing happened, and the Director was preapred to write Winslow's idea as little more than wild speculation, when he received a call. ONI agents on Argus 12 had discovered a team of saboteurs preparing to cut the power lines to the northern continent. After a few hours of "interrogation" at the hands of the ONI operatives, one of the saboteurs revealed that they had been in the employ of the "Colonial Fringers." Investigating this development, Winslow discovered that even in ONI's extensive research databank, no references to this group could be found; yet this discovery was at odds with the extent of these attacks. Winslow was left with three options, he could regard the Fringers as a front for another, more established terrorist organization, or he could treat them as a a legitimate new terror group. But this first analysis ran into difficulties when the second wave of reports from the ONI operatives on Argus 12 came in. The ideological beliefs expressed by each of the saboteurs were distressingly unique from those of any other group. Although a loose parallel could be drawn between them and the URF, the Fringers' unique blend of economically and ideologically motivated terrorism indicated they were likely a new group, and the fact that they were able to launch such a diverse range of subtle methods of sabotage meant that they enjoyed a broad range of support among civilians, or a quiet reputation strong enough to "convince" facility workers to look the other way as a sabotage was conducted. Winslow decided the only conclusive answer would be to speak with the captured prisoners themselves, although he soon discovered that the the saboteurs had been "shot trying to escape." Without further information, Winslow decided the best action was vigilance, and with an increase in security measures at various key colonial outposts, the rate of sabotage declined sharply. The Fringers quietly melted away, and for a short while the Galaxy was untroubled by war. But soon Winslow and Humanity faced a threat far more sinister: the Covenant. Human-Covenant War The fall of UNSC colonies like dominoes before the purple-clad fist of the Covenant fleet, sent tremors through the Human military. For the first time in Humanity's multi-millennial history, a threat had risen that threatened to exterminate Humanity forever, and as a member of ONI, Winslow would be on the forefront of the fighting. Operation:OXBOW As the battles for Harvest and a score of other UNSC worlds raged, ONI sprang into action. Under Winslow's urging ONI launched a massive intelligence effort directed at the Covenant. Yet thanks to Winslow's influence, OXBOW was not directed towards Covenant technology or military disposition, but rather towards Covenant culture and society. This move was the subject of extremely vocal protests from ONI and UNSC leadership, who felt they were wasting valuable intelligence resources on a project with no value to the UNSC's armed forces. But Winslow was adamant, he recognized that the Covenant was not undertaking a similar effort (the scorn they exhibited for Mankind proved that), and so if the UNSC could understand Covenant culture, they could exploit it, reigniting old rivalries between species, attacking on Covenant holidays, taunting their opponents with divisive slurs, possibly threatening the very integrity of the Covenant itself. Winslow realized that in order for the UNSC to have any hope of victory, they had to understand the mentality of the Covenant. OXBOW took many hours of careful analysis of captured Covenant holograms, sermons, prisoners, Marine helmet camera tapes, ONI intelligence dossiers, personal interviews with UNSC veterans, but in the end many valuable leads were uncovered. The chief Covenant languages (San 'Shuuym, Sanghieli, Jirlahanae, Unggoy, Kig 'Yar, and Covenant Primary) were translated and a dictionary of over 75,000 words was compiled. The key tenets of Coveant religion were gleaned from a captured Unggoy Deacon. And while some progress was made into the matter of the previously enigmatic "Great Journey," with the existence of the Halo Rings still unknown by the UNSC, ONI researchers were unable to make any significant headway into the matter. Winslow's groundbreaking work with Operation: OXBOW was a crucial element of the UNSC's successful campaign against the Covenant, allowing UNSC forces to exploit Covenant cultural weaknesses and ultimately cooperate more effectively with the Separatists. Project Heresy As a result of OXBOW's extensive intelligence gathering effort, several vital insights into Covenant culture were archived, among them the existence of a splinter group known as the "Heretics." Intrigued by the potential applications of this group both as a propaganda tool and as a fighting force, should they align themselves with the UNSC, Winslow laid plans for Project Heresy. Winslow's operational plans were fairly straightforward in concept, although their diplomatic, military, and political execution would prove to be vastly more complex and difficult. Based on interception of various Covenant signals, Winslow had good reason to believe the Heretics were in dire straits. But recognized that the Heretics, rebels though they were, would likely be initially hostile to any Human intrusion, and so Winslow set about building trust with the Heretics, feeding them low-grade Covenant intelligence intercepts, although showing sufficient circumspection to avoid revealing the sender. But the actions of Rtas 'Vadum and the Arbiter derailed Winslow's plan. With virtually all the Heretics dead, the survivors scattered and silent, and the all important Oracle in the possession on the Covenant, the Heretics were no longer the powerful force Winslow had hoped to exploit. And the ensuing Great Schism ended the need for Project Heresy, for with the Sangheili already temporary allies of the UNSC, there was no need to lure them away from the Covenant. Aftermath With the death of Truth, and the ensuing disintegration of the Covenant,Winslow and his fellow men were faced with the monumental task of rebuilding the shattered realm of Humanity, seeking to ensure that Mankind would rise from the ashes. Project Reconciliation With the threat of the Covenant Loyalists bated, the UNSC and the Sangheili no longer had a common enemy, and the old enmity between the two former foes stood poised to rise once more as old traditions died hard on both sides. In an effort to forestall renewed conflict, Winslow set Project Reconciliation into motion. Reconciliation was an expansive diplomatic project of unprecedented scale and significance, its result would either confirm the verdict of peace and victory the death of Truth had declared, or doom Humanity and the Sangheili to the return to the bloody conflict they had so recently departed from. Among both species the loud voices of warmongers could be heard. UNSC officers angry for revenge for the devastation of Humanity and her colonies, and xenophobic Sangheili who regarded the "inferior" Humans as a species whose right to existence was forfeit. Winslow was well aware that should these voice continue to be heard unchecked, war would eventually erupt, and Humanity might well be defeated. A lesser man would have ordered ONI assassins to silence them, but Winslow saw that these men, if killed could easily become martyrs, pushing Mankind over the brink, into a war she could not hope to win. And so Winslow quietly met with the dissenters, promising promotions for some, dispensing cash with others, and persuading others to slake their thirst for war, knowing the Sangheili's own radicals would likely become muted by the decrease of the UNSC "enemy's" potential militarism. With the threat of war temporarily abated, Winslow set about solidifying this temporary gain. Attempting to capitalize upon the good will present in the moderate Sangheili government headed by the Arbiter, Winslow prepared to forge a treaty he hoped would avert the threat of renewed Human-Sangheili forever. As a civilian, Winslow was well aware he would have difficulty gaining traction within Sangheili warrior culture, a fact he accounted for in laying his comprehensive scheme for peace with the Sangheili. With Humanity's most respected warrior, John-117 MIA, both Keyeses dead, and Lord Hood overseeing the monumental task of rebuilding what remained of Human civilization, Winslow was not presented with an obvious choice of military negotiators. Eventually, Winslow was able to recruit Vice-Admiral Silas Chochran to his cause. Cochran was a man with a checkered past, his years as a battle group commander had been heroic ones, earning him a chestful of medals and accolades. Through political maneuvering and battlefield prowess, he had carefully built up a hero's persona, often taking credit for victories that were not his. Yet despite his obvious flaws, Winslow felt Cochran's reputation was formidable enough to give his proposals gravity and military respectability. He was wrong. Cochran's more private persona was one of arrogance and intrigue, a reflection of his scheming and power-hungry nature, and reluctance to adhere to the highly finessed diplomatic plan Winslow had created. Battling not only with the demands of diplomatic intrigue, but with the subversive Cochran, Winslow was faced with a dilemma. Although technically Cochran's boss, Winslow, a civilian, had little rank-based authority over a Vice-Admiral, making Cochran well-nigh impossible to relieve. And even if Winslow could have fired Cochran, he would have been unwise to do so, for any sign of public division within the Human diplomatic camp would have sabotaged any peace efforts. Now effectively locked out from the public debate, Winslow began to work behind the scenes, meeting secretly with members of the Sangheili government. Recognizing the UNSC and the Sangheili needed to be economically dependent upon one another to preserve peace Winslow made forging trade and business links a key focus of his alliance agreements. For the militant Sangheili, this new emphasis was difficult to swallow at first; yet decades of war had made even the most hardened Elites ready for a respite from destruction. Head Sanheili negotiator Nro 'Nathum proved willing to accept many of Winslow's proposals, and the two worked tirelessly to draw the two races together. Yet the years of anti-human indoctrination and propaganda had left deep furrows in the minds of many young Elites. Sangheili lineages had been badly ripped during the war. Many proud scions had perished to the bullets of SPARTANs and Marines, leaving behind orphaned sons, rash young Elites eager to avenge their dead ancestors. It was these young Elites who formed the "Sons of the Red Dawn." They had no wish for peace. Forming a suicide squad, the Sons raided the Human delegation's makeshift embassy, and despite the best efforts of the Marine security detachment on guard, the Sons took hostages. Barricaded inside the damaged embassy, Cochran, Winslow and several other UNSC personnel were held at gunpoint by the Sons, demanding that the Human-Elite Alliance be revoked. Failure to comply would result in the death of the hostages. The dilemma was obvious and cruel. If the Humans were killed by the Sons terrorists, then the possibility of another war was a distinct possibility. Yet if the demands of the Sons were met, and the alliance was revoked, the ensuing inter-species tension could easily lead to another war. The Sons had planned their move well. When the UNSC and Sangheili leadership proved lukewarm on the matter of revoking the treaty, the Sons began to execute hostages. At first they were only low-level personnel, clerks and Marines, but soon the Sons began to kill their higher ranking hostages. Colonel Veck, the UNSC military attache to Sangheilios, was publicly beheaded and his body dumped in the street outside the embassy. And, sensing the Humans and Sangheili were wavering and about to break, the Sons went for the jugular: Cochran. Declaring that the Treaty had to be revoked within five minutes, they prepared to kill Cochran. Ironically, Winslow's frustrating backroom role saved his life. Thinking the shabbily-dressed professor was little more than a clerk, they spared his life. Cochran however, had no such luck... But with only seconds remaining, a joint team of Special Operations Elites and Fleet Counter-Terror Marines stormed the building. Stunned by flash-bangs, the hostages and hostage-takers alike froze as the team burst into the room. But one Son, Vel 'Varumee, mortally wounded by plasma blasts and bullets, slashed out, killing Cochran seconds before he could be rescued. With the lead negotiator dead, the peace efforts seemed doomed. But Winslow, plasma burns on his face and his clothing torn, somehow managed to return to work, and gradually, things changed. Impressed by the lone Humans courage and resolve, the Sangheili forged a peace with Winslow and Humanity, creating an alliance of trade, diplomacy, and military cooperation which has served as a model of statecraft for decades to come. New Discoveries The events of the Human-Covenant War had brought vast amounts of previously undiscovered Forerunner technology to the surface and limited knowledge exchange agreements between Human and Sangheili agencies yielded even more information. Winslow was assigned as the project's deputy leader. Project Stargazer Return to Normality Authoring, Nemesis: A History of Counter-Insurgency a book which would prove Retirement and Later Life Death Having lived through over a century years of some of the most pivotal time periods in the history of man and alienkind, Winslow quietly passed away in his sleep in his Virginia home on November 3rd, 2578. He was 106 years old. Legacy Winslow left behind a legacy of quiet contribution to the galaxy he had spent so many years of his life serving. Writing During his career in academia and the UNSC, Winslow was a highly prolific writer, penning dozens of letters, articles, books and classified documents. Many of these works were boring and abstract; dry reports about surveillance activity or trace amounts of lost radioactive material. Yet Winslow was capable of writing about more than the stringent or the arcane. A great historian must also be a great writer, capable of bringing the past alive through words. Yet the ability to paint with language is only one part of the puzzle that makes a historian. He must also have the intuition of a detective, the empathy to fully understand the human experience, and the foresight to see where it might lead. Winslow, in his quiet, unspectacular manner, had all these. For almost seven decades, his library on the Potomac was a second home, the place were ONI, the UNSC, and the world could be left behind, and Winslow could connect and retell the stories of the past he loved so dearly. Winslow had the rare magic of a David McCullough or a Stephen Ambrose, the power to distill the complexity of history into a living, breathing story, a story which could influence and inspire. And his words would go on to ripple far beyond bookshelves and libraries, for many of his ideas and observations went on to shape military, foreign, and domestic policy. Personal Life Personality Hobbies and Interests Winslow was an avid, lifelong reader, often reading two or more books a day. Behind the Scenes *Shelby F. Winslow is named after renowned American Civil War historian Shelby Foote and Arizona educator Jay Winslow. *The mention of W.B. Mitchell is a reference to the name of one of this article's contributors. *The quotes for this articles were drawn from a range of classical and popular media, such as Stargate SG-1, Thoreau's Walden, and Ken Burn's The War.